Respirators are commonly worn over a person's breathing passages for at least one of two common purposes: (1) to prevent impurities or contaminants from entering the wearer's respiratory system; and (2) to protect other persons or things from being exposed to pathogens and other contaminants exhaled by the wearer. In the first situation, the respirator is worn in an environment where the air contains particles that are harmful to the wearer, for example, in an auto body shop. In the second situation, the respirator is worn in an environment where there is risk of contamination to other persons or things, for example, in an operating room or clean room.
A variety of respirators have been designed to meet either (or both) of these purposes. Some respirators have been categorized as being “filtering face-pieces” because the mask body itself functions as the filtering mechanism. Unlike respirators that use rubber or elastomeric mask bodies in conjunction with attachable filter cartridges (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. RE39,493 to Yuschak et al.) or insert-molded filter elements (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,306 to Braun), filtering face-piece respirators are designed to have the filter media cover much of the whole mask body so that there is no need for installing or replacing a filter cartridge. These filtering face-piece respirators commonly come in one of two configurations: molded respirators and flat-fold respirators.
Molded, filtering face piece respirators have regularly comprised non-woven webs of thermally-bonding fibers or open-work plastic meshes to furnish the mask body with its cup-shaped configuration. Molded respirators tend to maintain the same shape during both use and storage. These respirators therefore cannot be folded flat for storage and shipping. Examples of patents that disclose molded, filtering face-piece respirators include U.S. Pat. No. 7,131,442 to Kronzer et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,923,182, 6,041,782 to Angadjivand et al.,U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,619 to Dyrud et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,440 to Berg.
Flat-fold respirators —as their name implies —can be folded flat for shipping and storage. They also can be opened into a cup-shaped configuration for use. Flat fold respirators commonly derive their structural integrity not from being molded but rather from being provided with a series of weld, seam and/or fold lines that impart that integrity to the mask body when it is placed in an unfolded condition. Stiffening members also have been incorporated into panels of the mask body. Examples of flat-fold respirators are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,568,392 and 6,484,722 to Bostock et al., and 6,394,090 to Chen —see also, U.S. Patent Applications 2010/0067700 and 2010/0154805 to Duffy et al., and U.S. Design Pat. No 659,821 to Spoo et al.
Non-molded respirators also have been designed which approximate the structure of a molded mask body. These products may not fold completely flat when placed in the storage condition. As such they present good candidates for storage in a stacked or nested arrangement. Examples of these kinds of respirators are shown in the following U.S. patent applications: Ser. Nos. 13/727,923, 14/013,214, 14/013,314 to Duffy.
Molded and flat fold respirators are commonly furnished to the end user in a box that has a reclosable top or an access partition perforated into one of the side panels of the box. When the access partition is removed, by severing it along the perforated line, the end user can reach into the box to retrieved one or more of the respirators located within it. The respirators are regularly stacked one-upon-the-other within the box, typically in a nested arrangement for space saving purposes. Unlike flat fold respirators, molded products often are not individually wrapped, and they are provided to the end user in an in-use condition. Users do not need to remove the wrapper or open the product from a folded condition to make it ready to don. Molded respirators, therefore, are provided in a ready-to-use configuration. Historically, non-molded respirators have not possessed this advantage: the end user has needed to learn how to adapt the mask body into its in-use configuration. The present invention accordingly addresses a way to deliver non-molded respirators to the end user in a manner that allows for intuitive donning of the respirator direct from the storage container.